I’m a writer and digital editor. Previously, I served as senior digital editor at the Los Angeles Times. I also headed mobile technology and emerging platforms for latimes.com. Formerly, I’ve been on staff at Entrepreneur Magazine, and have written for various national publications. I love art, tech, and science - and especially places where all three of those things clash, mesh, or merge.

500 Start-Ups In 5 Years

Marks, co-founder of video game giant Activision, along with business partner Paul Kessler, longtime financier and owner of the Los Angeles Film School, founded the accelerator Start Engine in November 2011.

The idea for such a place was born out of Marks’ wish for L.A. to keep its own engineers.

“I decided I wanted to start another game company — which is exactly what I should be doing right now — but I went to UCLA to spend time with the computer science department. The chairman kept telling me he gets emails every week from companies, saying — ‘Hey, I’m looking for engineers. Can you help me out?’,” said Marks.

Engineers graduating from UCLA often get hired by large companies like Google and Facebook, and most leave Los Angeles to pursue those opportunities. Marks looked around town to see what was in L.A. to help entrepreneurs grow businesses here and remain in town, and didn’t find much in early 2011.

“This concept was born from the fact that I saw a huge need in L.A.,” said Marks.

“We knew we could galvanize Los Angeles with all these great ingredients that were already here — universities, mentors, talent. All we had to do was push it a little bit and it started moving very fast,” said Kessler.

Start Engine is a 90-day rapid accelerator program. They just graduated their first class of ten start-ups and their second group has already taken root at the Westwood offices.

About Los Angeles’ needs, Marks is clear about his vision for a more unified future.

“There’s a cultural issue. We need to change the culture. We need to have events — tons of events. We need to have festivals. We need to have demo days. We need to have pitch days. We need geek-meet-business days. We need all of this,” Marks said. “We need the universities and the City to participate.”

The pair would also like to see a network of companies that work together more readily — larger, established businesses in L.A. willing to work with local start-ups. They want start-ups to stay in Los Angeles to further grow the incipient ecosystem.

“The truth is we’re building strong community,” said Kessler.

Their goals are lofty.

“We want to be very ambitious. Our goal is 500 companies in 5 years,” said Marks. “Our mission is to make L.A. a top tech entrepreneurial city.”

That’s 100 new start-ups per year — a huge number, as compared with other accelerator and incubator programs. “It’s going to be a tremendous amount of volume. The reason we picked it is maybe because we wanted to do something the size of L.A.,” Marks said.

“L.A. is big. And it deserves a big accelerator with the size of this city’s ambition.”

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